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Sunday, June 7, 2009

the burial coffins outside Lumiang cave is believed to be more than five hundred years. there's about a hundred wooden coffins all piled up in the opening of this cave. early morning the next day, we went to the tourism office at the municipal hall to meet with our guide for the cave connection. cave guides are certified to be trained and has good experience in the field of spelunking.we were introduced to Manong Wilbur Timpac who has been entering these caves for more than 15years now. a quiet yet compose type of person now on his thirtees. he led us down the paved road to barangay Ambasing, where some of the burial caves are found. even along the road, we passed by small caves with burial coffins outside its opening.towering stone walls can be seen from afar with some hanging coffins, which i'll be featuring in the coming posts. pine trees are everywhere and and the farther we go, the fewer the houses.when we reached about 500meters of walking, we turned left now entering a rough path. upon reaching the cave's opening, we saw the coffins piled up almost reaching the cave's curved ceiling.years back, the tribes that inhabited Sagada practiced the tradition of placing the coffins of the dead outside a cave opening instead of the traditional human burial. it is not even placed inside the cave as they believe that the dead deserves to be exposed.if you look closely at the wooden coffins, you'll notice that it's smaller than the usual coffin. this is because the bodies are placed in fetal position. in the belief that since the baby in the mother's womb is in this position, humans are to be in the same position when buried.some of the coffins has animal carvings, of which a form of a gecko is common. according to some, this represents good leadership among the clan.all the coffins in Lumiang cave are believed to be people coming from the same clan. therefore others are placed on other caves around Sagada. some coffins are already damaged through time. but for years of preservation, the coffins are now being protected and safeguarded by the guides through the initiatives of Sagada's cultural preservation team. i consider this site as a national treasure.

57 comments:

wow... nice!! i know china has a place like this too... i didnt know sagada has this awesome place =p thanks for sharing... you are bad... because i miss pandesal already... used to have it every morning with coffee/tea....

by the way dongjust want to invite you to join the "OPERATION 111" Memeits with the commemoration of Philippine 111th independence dayheres the link for the taghttp://bluedreamer27.blogspot.com/2009/06/operation-111.htmlhave a great day hope you can participate before June 12 ends

Dong, i found this post interesting. Here in Sarawak we had burial poles n remains up high. Even in my hometown Sibu, the Chinese are buried above ground until today unlike in West Malaysia where they r buried six feet under.

Wow!!! Hanging coffins na naman... I'm glad pinasyal mo kami dito. I came across this place in some other blogs and learned that at some points, those hanging coffins were vandalized by irresponsible tourists. I'm sure you would also blog about it later.

Wow! Amazing! But I will never, ever walk in this place alone even if it's broad daylight. But this is a good post Dong. Very educational! Can't wait for your next post. You promised hanging coffins, right? Well, bring it on!

I enjoyed your sagada series! I'm glad that there are efforts to preserve the hanging coffins. Was always worried about vandalism and looting, i bet some collectors are eyeing those precious artifacts kase.

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eskapo is a travel blog www.escapeislands.com. a compendium of dong ho's experience from island to island. mountain to mountain. connecting people having the same passion in travel or the mere love of going places.